


Promise

by musiclvr1112



Series: A Royal Dance [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, Angst, Childhood Friends, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Heavy Angst, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-15
Updated: 2019-01-15
Packaged: 2019-10-10 13:44:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17427011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musiclvr1112/pseuds/musiclvr1112
Summary: Written for Rare Pair Month day 14: ChildhoodNathaniel worries about his best friend in the wake of her mother's death.





	Promise

**Author's Note:**

> cw: grief, mourning

It wasn’t unusual for them to go days without seeing each other. Only back during their childhood—back when Chloé didn’t have as many princess duties to attend to—did she find her way down to the basement on a daily basis. She had started to skip a day or two at a time somewhere around the age of 10, and her visits only grew more and more infrequent as the years went on. More recently, with her parents trying to arrange a marriage for her, she had started to go as many as five days without visiting him.

Even when she couldn’t visit him though, he usually at least saw her around the castle. Sometimes on his way out into the city to run errands, he would pass her in the hall and he would bow his head as she walked by. If she was alone, and no one was around to hear, he would take the risk of whispering something—an inside joke between them perhaps—and she would giggle under her breath as she continued on her way.

Sometimes when he was out washing clothes, he would see her in the garden with whatever noble man she was meeting that day. Out under the sunlight, her hair would glow like a halo about her head and if he was close enough to see her face, he would note that her eyes were so much brighter of a blue than he ever realized. He would overhear her laughing at the men’s words and he would smile to himself because he knew her _real_ laugh, and none of them ever drew it out of her.

If nothing else, he would usually at least catch a glimpse of her sitting down for dinner as he helped the kitchen staff. It was just a glimpse, but it was enough to note whether she was herself that day or if she was hiding behind the mask she put on for the public when she wanted nothing to do with them. That was often a good way of determining whether she would sneak down to the basement to see him afterwards.

So even when she didn’t come to see him, he at least _saw_ her regularly. That was why it was alarming when ten days passed and Nathaniel saw absolutely no sign of her. Not one.

The first day was no surprise. News of the queen’s passing had made its way down to the basement early that afternoon. He expected that day he would either see Chloé in great distraught and needing comfort, or not at all. It had turned out to be the latter.

The next few days he worried for her, but as anyone would worry for their grieving friend. While the king was seen tending to his duties—albeit with a heavy weight upon his shoulders and not even a mask to don—the princess was nowhere to be seen. Word had it that she refused to see anyone—not even her handmaiden—and hadn’t left her room since it happened. It was sad, but it wasn’t unexpected behavior of someone suffering the loss of a loved one. If Nathaniel had ever wished he had a title, it was then, so that he may be allowed to visit her, to be there for her.

As more and more days ticked by though, his worry grew. It would be one thing if she simply wasn’t visiting him. But she wasn’t even seen about the castle—not just by him but by anyone. By the ninth day, he’d overheard kitchen staff say that she wasn’t accepting meals sent to her room. Maids’ whispered gossip told him that the king himself had gone to see her and had received little more than assuring words through a closed door.

He knew she was alive, but his security in her well-being ended there.

Thus leading to what was probably one of the worst decisions of his life—but one that he couldn’t foresee himself ever regretting. For the first time in the twelve years he had lived in the castle and the eleven that he had been friends with Chloé, Nathaniel snuck past the guards and ventured all the way up to her room. Chloé had told him of their patrol patterns ages ago, but he had never dared to risk sneaking past them. He’d never had reason to, and he quite liked his head where it was.

But not knowing if she was alright was tearing him apart—no, knowing that she _wasn’t_ alright was tearing him apart. That was reason enough.

“Chloé?” he whispered, lightly tapping his knuckles against the wooden door. “It’s Nathaniel.” No answer. He picked up his voice just the slightest bit. “Chloé, it’s me.” Still nothing. “Please, I—,” he cut himself off, cold dread washing over him as the unmistakable march of the guards approached. He thought he’d have more time before their patrol brought them back around here. He looked down to the other end of the corridor, wondering if he would have time to round the corner before—

The door swung open. He hardly had a chance to see her before she took his shirt in a fist and wrenched him into the room, quickly shoving the door shut behind him. He had just opened his mouth to speak when she held up her index finger, shooting him a glare that could silence thunder itself. She pressed her ear to the door and waited.

She looked better than he had expected, but still nowhere near her usual perfection. Her hair was down around her shoulders with frizzy strands sticking out about her head and the ends twisting together into tiny knots. She must have allowed her handmaiden in eventually, because she seemed to have at least bathed recently, and her nightgown looked freshly cleaned. But she also had shadows under her eyes that had never been there before, and her cheeks were red, blotchy, as if she had been crying. A lot.

He had seen her cry before. He had even seen her sad for days at a time. But he had never seen her like this.

As the guards’ steps faded away, she finally turned and fixed deadly blue eyes on him. “Are you out of your mind!?” she yelled in a whisper. “You could have been killed! If anyone catches you here, not only will you lose your head, I’ll lose my status as a maiden!”

Despite the way she hissed her words through gritted teeth, he ignored them, reaching up to push some hair from her face and looking back and forth between bloodshot eyes in worry.

“I brought you some fresh bread from the kitchen,” he lifted a small loaf he held wrapped in a cloth napkin to keep it warm. “Please eat.”

Chloé stared at him, face frozen in disbelief. She seemed lost somewhere between outrage and confusion at his actions. “What?”

“I know you’ve been refusing meals. I thought maybe you’d eat some fresh bread since it’s your favorite.”

She said nothing, just kept staring at him with her brows pinched together and her eyes wide as if she didn’t understand him. Eventually, he looked down to unwrap the cloth and tear off a piece of bread.

He held it up to her mouth. “Eat.”

Whatever anger had been left in her gaze fell away, leaving confusion and sorrow in its place as she finally looked down and opened her mouth. The way she chewed looked like she wasn’t even tasting the bread, but at least she was eating it. He tore off another piece and fed it to her as soon as she finished the first one.

She sighed and took the loaf from his hands.

“If I promise to eat, will you promise you won’t come up here again? I just lost my mother; don’t make me lose you too.”

Nathaniel smiled softly and ran a gentle hand over the back of her head, pulling her in to kiss her forehead. “I promise.”

She folded into his chest as she took another bite and he wrapped his arms around her comfortingly. “Stay for a little while,” she whispered.

“I’m not letting you out of my sight at least until you finish that bread.”

Chloé let out a tiny sigh that was almost a laugh. It was small, but it was something. “Thank you, Nathaniel.”


End file.
